We're friends, right?
by Kweh-Chocoboco
Summary: Clack. During his days as a Shinra infantryman, Cloud meets Zack, whom he looks up to as a hero. Set in Crisis Core times, with some adjustments of course.


**Yay, another clack fic. Don't worry, I'll keep updating the other one I'm working on. c: **

**I feel like my writing's slowly starting to improve, now that I've written a few fics. Please review, so I can learn how to write better! ;W;**

**Uh, I obviously don't own FFVII, nor its characters. /cries**

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A loud noise filled the small room. A small figure under the blankets moved a bit, and an thin arm reached for the alarm clock, in an attempt to stop it from making the horrible sound. After missing the clock a few times, the beeping finally seized, and once more it was quiet in the room. Instead, a soft growl was heard, and wild, blond spikes appeared from under the blankets. The arm once again reached out, this time to turn on the lights. As the darkness left the room, the blonde covered his eyes, hiding from the sudden bright lights.

After a few moments, a set of bright blue eyes opened hesitantly, scanning the room. The dominating color in this space obviously was gray, decorating the walls, floor, ceiling… Pretty much everything in the room. There were two of everything in the room; two closets, two desks, two beds. However, there was only one person in the room; Cloud's roommate was away on a mission.

Cloud brought his hands to his face, rubbing his eyes, trying to get rid of the sleepiness in his head. He looked at the clock again; it was 05:04 now. Slowly, the blonde stepped out of his bed to get ready for the day. He still had enough time left, as training didn't start until 0600 hours.

He stepped out of his room, a towel under his arm. He made his way through the hallways, his left hand tracing the walls. When he rounded the corner, he assumed he bumped into someone, since he heard a surprised "Whoa!". The drowsy blonde looked up, and saw two blue eyes, shining with mako, looking back. "Ah, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to do that" Cloud said. He quickly walked past the other person, continuing his pace. He didn't hear the other person yelling anymore.

Once he reached the showers, which were usually empty around this hour, he undressed and let the warm water run over his body. It slowly helped him wake up, making him more conscious of his surroundings. Then it hit him. _"Mako eyes… Did I bump into a SOLDIER? I hope it won't bring me into any problems, seeing how quickly I walked away…" _He sighed, and turned off the shower. He dried his body, and put on his infantryman uniform. He walked back to his room to put on his armor, after which he started making his way to the gym for training.

* * *

Cloud fell to the ground, panting, after an especially rough training session. The instructor had kept barking orders at the cadets, without ever giving them a short break. Cloud definitely wasn't weak, in fact, he was far ahead of a most people in his group, but there was no way he could keep up with this. He heard a door open, but his lack of energy made him too lazy to look behind him to see who it was. He heard some mumbling about someone having to speak to one of the cadets; it was nothing weird, it happened frequently when someone had disobeyed one of the higher-ups, or when they needed someone to lift some heavy boxes, or for other annoying jobs like that.

However, what Cloud definitely hadn't expected, was the gloved hand that suddenly reached out to him. He looked up to see his second pair of mako eyes of that day, and this time, he was absolutely sure they belonged to a SOLDIER. And no less than a 1st class, judging from the black uniform he was wearing.

He hesitated for a few short moments, and grabbed the hand, which pulled him back to his feet. "Am I in… some kind of trouble, sir?" he asked.

"Don't worry, cadet, there are no problems." Cloud let out a small sigh, relieved that he hadn't brought himself into trouble. "Well, no big ones, anyway" the SOLDIER said, a serious look on his face.

The stressed look returned to Cloud's face, until the 1st class patted his shoulder, laughing. "Relax, I was just joking! Hey, remember when you bumped into that SOLDIER this morning?"

Cloud's face went pale, remembering the events of that morning. It was unheard of that one would bump into a high ranking Shinra employee, and then run away as fast as they could. He looked at the SOLDIER's face again, and now he recognized him. The blue eyes, shining with mako. Spiky black hair. An x-shaped scar on his left cheek. This was definitely the same person from that morning.

"Uhm… Yes, sir?"

"Hey, you look like you just saw a ghost or something. Didn't I tell you not to worry? Here, you dropped your ID card when you bumped into me. Those things are kind of important, so I suggest you try not to lose it again." he said, flashing a bright smile.

"Th-thank you, sir" Cloud responded.

The SOLDIER looked around, noticing that everyone else had left the gym already, and turned back to Cloud. "You know, you can just drop the "sir" thing. Being called "sir" by someone who's not far from my own age makes me feel way too old. Just call me Zack instead, okay?"

Cloud nodded, a little bit surprised. He had never seen such a… cheerful SOLDIER. Most of them were kind of grumpy, but this one was as energetic as a little puppy. Only then Cloud noticed how young Zack looked, he was probably only still a teenager, like himself.

"But hey, you might want to take a shower now, you look kinda tired and stuff", the black haired male said. "Whaddaya say we grab something to eat afterwards? I would kill for a cheeseburger right now, but I bet none of the other firsts would want to eat anything like that. Besides, they're no fun to hang around with."

Cloud nodded. "Sure."

"Well then, Cloud, I'll see ya in… twenty minutes?'

"Okay. Wait… How do you know my name, I never told you."

"ID card~", Zack said, waving his hand as he exited the gym.

* * *

Cloud exited his room, wearing a fresh uniform sans armor, and walked towards the entrance of the Shinra headquarters, where Zack was waiting for him. "You ready for that cheeseburger?" he said, giving Cloud a high five. "You bet" he replied, smiling.

They left the Shinra building, and walked through the streets of Midgar. They stopped in front of a small fastfood restaurant. "This place seriously has the best burgers in Midgar, they've got this awesome Wutainese sauce they put on them!"

They ordered their burgers, Zack's with extra Wutainese sauce, and sat down to eat. They chatted about various things, though Zack did most of the talking. He described big, ferocious monsters he had slain, and talked about all of the awesome places he had visited. Cloud listened to him in awe, hoping that once he could join SOLDIER, he would be able to do all those awesome things to.

Time passed way faster than they thought, and soon Cloud had to leave again, because cadets had to be at the barracks before 11. They walked back to the Shinra building together, and stopped before the main entrance.

"Hey, Spikey, thanks for coming with me! I've gotta go now, or Tseng's going to get mad at me for not doing my paper work. See ya!" He ruffled Cloud's hair once more, and entered the building. Cloud kept standing there for a few more moments, happy because he found a new friend, and entered as well, on his way to the barracks.

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**Aaaand, that's it for chapter 1~ ; u ;**

**Please review!**


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